Before the digital age, arcades entertained us with something a bit more physical than Pac-Man or Galaga: The pinball machine.
Teens of the pinball age spent hundreds of hours battling it out for high scores, and machines often mirrored the popular franchises of the time. Although they don't have the same graphics quality as the PlayStation, pinball machines and those who played them were objectively cool for their time.
Here are 18 awesome vintage photos of pinball wizards, and the machines they played on.
1
Debbie Harry, AKA Blondie, playing Pinball in NYC. 1977.
2
Roger Sharpe demonstrating to NYC council men that pinball is a game of skill, not luck, by calling a shot making it. 1976.
3
The Who drummer Keith Moon playing pinball, sometime before September 1968.
4
Betsy, a regular player in Somerville, MA, 1980. She still plays today.
5
Vicki Witt from Play boy, August 1978 edition.
6
Girls playing pinball, 1974.
7
Woman at a pinball arcade, circa 1976.
8
1947, Fairborn, Ohio. The very first pinball machine arrives at the Skyway Community Center.
9
Bob Dylan playing pinball, 1964.
10
Playing pinball in a Paris bar, 1953.
11
My great-grandpa playing pinball in his teens, 1935.
12
The Ramones with a pinball machine in CBGB's in 1977.
13
1953: Playing pinball in Davenport, Iowa.
14
Group of men playing marble pinball machines in Broadway Amusement Arcade, 1930s. Times Square, New York City.
15
Joey Ramone playing pinball, late 1970s.
16
“Future pinball wizard, 1950.”
17
My Grandmother playing Pinball in 1963.
18
Playing pinball in a store in the Kensington section of Philadelphia. January 25th 1979.
